Social interactions like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, identify opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and spy on your competition. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including market research, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have created a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article where we explore many social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. For more details, go here:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … change all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress administrator login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers site owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal use of hosting resources. The plugin can generate reports fast, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, category, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are just a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have submitted for SocialMetricsPro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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